PASSINGS: James D. Hodgson, Patrick Moore

James D. Hodgson

Former secretary of Labor

James D. Hodgson, 96, who as secretary of Labor in the early 1970s helped shepherd the Occupational Safety and Health Act into law, died Nov. 28 at his Malibu home, his family announced. The cause was complications after hip surgery.

He was director of industrial relations at Lockheed Aircraft Co., where he had worked for nearly three decades, when President Nixon appointed him undersecretary of Labor in 1969 and secretary of Labor in 1970.

In addition to implementing OSHA, which greatly expanded the Department of Labor’s regulatory responsibilities, Hodgson led a major expansion of employment and training programs “to stem post-Vietnam War recession” through the Emergency Employment Act of 1971, according to the department.

After leaving the post in 1973, he served as President Ford’s ambassador to Japan from 1974 to 1977 and became so fascinated with Japanese culture that he published a book in English of satirical haiku.

James Day Hodgson was born Dec. 3, 1915, in Dawson, Minn., to a lumber dealer and his wife.

Soon after earning a bachelor’s degree in 1938 from the University of Minnesota, Hodgson moved to California. In 1941, he joined Lockheed in Burbank as a personnel clerk. He married in 1943 and is survived by his wife, Maria, and two children.

During World War II, he spent three years in the Navy as an air-combat intelligence officer in the Pacific before returning to Lockheed. At the company, he was “known as a man of integrity,” The Times reported in 1969, and a “student of industrial relations who has learned his lessons well.”

Patrick Moore

Popular BBC TV astronomy show host

Patrick Moore, an eccentric, ebullient amateur British astronomer and popular BBC television host who wrote one of his many astronomy books with the lead guitarist from the band Queen, died Sunday. He was 89.

Moore died at his home in Selsey, England, according to a statement by several of his staff and friends. No cause of death was specified, although the statement said Moore had recently been hospitalized.

Moore was best known for his long-running BBC television show “The Sky at Night,” which was credited with popularizing astronomy for generations of Britons. With his trademark monocle and featuring occasional on-air xylophone performances, Moore had presented the show for more than half a century.

“Over the past few years, Patrick, an inspiration to generations of astronomers, fought his way back from many serious spells of illness and continued to work and write at a great rate, but this time his body was too weak to overcome the infection which set in a few weeks ago,” the statement said.

It was signed by staff members and friends of Moore, including Queen guitarist Brian May, who holds a PhD in astrophysics. The two men, together with astrophysicist Chris Lintott, wrote “Bang! The Complete History of the Universe,” published in 2008.

“Patrick will be mourned by the many to whom he was a caring uncle, and by all who loved the delightful wit and clarity of his writings, or enjoyed his fearlessly eccentric persona in public life,” May said in a tribute posted along with the statement on his band’s website.

Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore was born March 4, 1923, in the village of Pinner in Middlesex, England. He suffered from heart problems as a child and was unable to attend school regularly but developed a passionate interest in astronomy. He later wrote dozens of his more than 60 books on a 1908 typewriter he received as a gift when he was 8.

Moore, who was knighted in 2001, had recently celebrated the 55th anniversary of his program.

Times staff and wire reports

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